3 Ficlette Challenge '09
by Verily-Snuffles
Summary: 3 mini Hogwarts OC based fics written as part of a challenge between my sister and I. More details are in the introduction. Rated T to be safe.
1. Introduction

A Three Ficlette Challenge

A note from the author:

This is a fanfic-writing challenge between my sister and I. It involves using our original characters in the Harry Potter 'verse to write three short stories, with certain requirements.

These are the following:

The three fics have to be:

1x Romance: This fanfic must include a love triangle

1x Makeover: This fic has to have a big wow debut for the makeover subject(s)

1x Angst: This story has to have a deep dark family secret revealed by a Slytherin

These three elements also must be included, one in each fanfic:

a little jig/goofy little dance by someone

shiny red shoes

a bouquet of azaleas (mainly pink flowers)

What follows is my attempt at this. I hope you enjoy reading it, and be sure to point out any mistakes/typos in my writing that I failed to notice.

It's pretty obvious, but I might as well state that I obviously do not own Hogwarts and all the elements of this fiction which were made and owned by J.K. Rowling. I'm obviously acknowledging this in publishing this on .

Now enjoy...


	2. Ficlette 1: Romance

FICLETTE ONE: ROMANCE

(Includes bouquet of azaleas)

It was a sunny day at Hogwarts, and love was in the air. ...Or at least it was for the group of girls crowding up the corridor around the local celebrity third year Gryffindor Tracey Jerome.

'Where do these girls _come_ from?' groaned the exasperated Lyra Alvey in her efforts to get to the door. 'I swear there were less last year.'

'I guess they induct new members from the first and second years,' Emily offered. 'At least we only have this class with him this year. Would it really hurt Lovett to be early for once?'

After what seemed like forever Professor Lovett rescued them from the crowd of fangirls. After joking about it being pre-Valentine's fever he assigned them their Charms task for the day and they got to work.

As Lyra worked on her cushion another flew past her ear and smacked hard into the back of Tracey's head a few rows front of her.

'Sorry! I must've flicked my wand wrong or something,' Felix laughed, walking Tracey.

Tracey laughed it off with him and got back to work, and Felix went back to his seat behind Lyra, cushion in hand.

'What was _that_ just now, Lucky?' Emily interrogated.

'I said—'

'You're an ace at Charms, Lyra here on the other hand...'

'Hey!' Lyra retorted, 'everyone has their flaws. But what _was_ that about, Lucky?'

He sighed, 'Stop it with the geeky nickname and I'll tell you.'

The girls just frowned at him.

'Fine, fine! You know his fangirl gang? Well my sister is one of them. First year. She's been annoying me all Christmas about me giving him her love letters or something stupid. She even wanted me to magic him a bouquet of azaleas!' Felix grimaced.

'Oh, that must really suck.' Lyra stated.

'I get exactly what you mean,' Emily empathised, 'I'm sick to death of him and I've never even talked to him. What does the mindless mob see in him, anyway?'

'Your sister must've said something.'

'Oh, it's just the usual stuff,' Felix sighed. 'Quidditch mainly, but apparently he's quite good at Defence, too.'

'Sounds like you, Lyra,' Emily sniggered.

'Yeah but the gender.' Lyra pointed out.

'Well yo— MMPH,' Emily was cut off by a cushion in the face.

'Speaking of Quidditch, I have a match against him tomorrow.' Lyra said, 'I might as well humiliate him in front of all his fan girls. Now help me charm this cushion.'

* * *

'Good luck! Not that you need it, muscle brains,' Emily encouraged.

Lyra laughed sarcastically in reply and mounted her broom, joining the rest of her team in the sky.

'Ok, take your positions and remember the strategy,' the blue-and-bronze captain yelled to his team, 'and most of all, GOOD LUCK!'

With that they went to their positions, Lyra eyeing Tracey, a chaser along with her, and the game began.

The game was tough on both sides as the Gryffindors were gutsy and didn't back down, but the Ravenclaws had nearly flawless strategy, and were in the lead 130-0.

Laura, another Ravenclaw chaser, was racing down the pitch and was caught unawares by a rogue Bludger, dropping the Quaffle.

Lyra raced for it, just barely catching it with her fingertips, and would have dropped it if Tracey hadn't caught the other side of it. They glared at each other and each tugged on the Quaffle. Just as Lyra thought they had reached a stalemate Tracey tugged extra hard, pulling Lyra along with the Quaffle and kissed her straight on the mouth. Lyra let go of the Quaffle for a split second and Tracey sped off with a 'Happy Valentine's', quickly scoring a goal for Gryffindor. Lyra, bright red and glaring, channelled all her energy into getting 4 more goals and a sure win for Ravenclaw.

From then on there was more than one pillow trained for Tracey's head in Charms, and Lyra never issues with aim again.


	3. Ficlette 2: Makeover

FICLETTE TWO: MAKEOVER

(Includes shiny red shoes)

It was two weeks 'til Hallowe'en and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was buzzing with talk about the Hallowe'en ball, a somewhat recent addition to the school calendar.

'So who are you taking? What are you wearing?' Emily giggled deafeningly over dinner while flicking her straight black hair back in a poor imitation of what seemed like every girl in the school.

'Heh, well, I really don't know. I haven't bothered asking anyone and I have no clothes anyway,' Lyra reasoned, her eyes brown and hazel and her brown roots showing through the navy mass. 'I probably won't bother going, actually.'

'I couldn't agree more,' added Aliorumnas, azure eyes void of girly fantasies, 'it's really a waste of time when we have so much work we should be doing.'

Emily gaped. 'Not both of you? What the heck, let's get you all dolled up for it! Come on, it'll be fun. You can borrow two of my dresses; I'll have some sent over for you.'

'Ugh, if you have to...' Lyra was not going down without a fight, 'But no make-up!'

Emily stared at her incredulously, emerald eyes wide. 'You can at least have make-up! And you won't mind me charming away that horrible navy-and-brown hair colour you have. What about you, Alio?'

'Protesting isn't worth the effort once you have your mind set,' she answered succinctly, tucking her wavy short snowy hair behind her ear to better eat dinner.

'That's the spirit. Now you need dates,' Emily looked around.

'As if you have one!' Lyra accused.

'I'm going with Dan Harvey, from Slytherin,' Emily spotted a target and ran over to them further down the table, 'Hey Lucky, are any of you guys dateless for the ball?'

'Well yeah!' he grinned, messing up his messy chocolate hair. 'Most of us haven't asked anyone yet. Who's asking?'

'Well, believe it or not but Lyra and Alio are still free. Does this 'us' include you?'

He grinned. 'Actually it does. I take it lover boy Tracey hasn't asked Lyra, then? I think Sean's still free. You know Sean Ward, right?'

'Yeah, I think so. Black hair, blue eyes, kind of tall, right?'

'That's the guy. He's pretty ... studious, so I think he'll have something in common with Alio.'

'Thanks much, Lucky.' Emily laughed.

'No, thank you,' Felix bowed dramatically.

Emily returned to the others and told them the news. 'Now we wait.'

* * *

Soon enough the day of the ball arrived. Lyra had almost put the unsettling thought out of her mind when she was ambushed early in the morning.

'Wakey wakey, rise and shine. I'm all for beauty sleep but we have work to do!' Emily's voice penetrated Lyra's sleeping mind.

'Whaaa...' she groggily sat up, rubbing her eyes. 'You crazy? It's Saturday, I wanna sleep...' she let out a big yawn.

'You look like a lion when you yawn,' Emily replied distastefully.

'Aren'cha gonna wake the others...?'

'It's 10 so they're up already. You're going to miss breakfast if you don't go soon...'

The retiring Lyra quickly leaped out of bed as this new argument registered, and was changed and downstairs almost instantly.

As soon as she was finished with what was on her plate Lyra was ushered back upstairs with Aliorumnas by the fiendish rich girl with a goal.

'Now team, meet the subjects.' Emily announced to the room of third year Ravenclaws. 'Item one is Lyra Alvey, Quidditch extraordinaire and genuine sports nut. Usually seen hair dyed with cheap Muggle products wearing trainers and tee-shirts.

'Item two is Aliorumnas 'Alio' Argall, studious girl with a mysterious past and oddly white hair. Often seen doing homework in her uniform.

'Ok, firstly we do the hair,' Emily instructed, leading them into the bathroom where she had already set up a makeshift salon. The assistants sat the girls at the two prepared sinks and began washing their hair. 'Now we mix a little of this special hair-dying potion into the shampoo and conditioner of item one.'

Once their hair was washed, Emily had their hair styled.

'Now for the make-up.' Emily announced, quickly going about it.

The girls sat rather uncomfortably as they weren't allowed to see a mirror until the makeover was complete.

'And now the dresses!' Emily had them brought in and put on the subjects, making adjustments where she saw fit.

'Now for the final touch ... shoes and accessories!'

Soon enough the makeover was complete, although in reality it took many hours. However, as there were rest breaks in between when Emily and some of the assistants left mysteriously they had time to relax.

Emily stood in front of the girls, triumphant. 'You can both get up and turn around now.' She announced proudly.

The girls did so and gasped. 'Is that me?' Lyra asked dumbly.

'Well I certainly wasn't expecting this,' Aliorumnas admitted.

'Glad you like it. Now for the moment of truth: we meet your dates in the common room!'

She led them to the common room where they met their dates looking better than ever.

Felix was dressed in a classic black pinstriped suit with a pale gold tie which brought out his golden eyes. His chocolate hair was gelled for a neater look to suit Lyra's pinned-back auburn ladylike bun decorated with pale gold ribbon. Her dress was a pale gold strapless with an at-the-knee semi-sheer panelling skirt. The look was finished with simple black shiny Mary Janes, a simple white gold charm bracelet and a small tiger's eye hanging from a white gold chain necklace. She had on simple but natural-looking eyeliner and mascara with bit of pink lip-gloss and faint gold eye shadow.

Sean arrived in a stunning midnight blue dress suit with a lavender shirt and a silver tie, his blue eyes gleaming with intelligence and black hair short, straight and neatly placed. Aliorumnas wore an equally stunning floor-length midnight blue gown with (though unseen) silver three-inch sandal heels to lessen the height difference. Her hair was pinned back with silver clips and she wore an amethyst chip bracelet and a diamond diamond silver necklace. Her eyeliner was midnight blue and her mascara black, her face had a silver shimmer on it, with light lavender eye shadow, and her lips were a slightly darker shade of pink.

Finally they left the room to meet Dan Harvey in the Entrance Hall, the two couples walking arm-in-arm.

'You look great,' Felix said finally.

'You look pretty snazzy yourself,' Lyra replied with a cheeky grin, breaking the illusion of her having completely changed.

Sean and Aliorumnas exchanged similar compliments.

They finally arrived and met Dan, who wore a grey suit with a scarlet vest, matching Emily's scarlet dress, and a white tie over a charcoal shirt. His black hair was back in a short ponytail and his charcoal eyes glimmered. Emily's dress had a long skirt with a cut up one side to the mid-thigh with glamorous plunging v-neck-line. This was accentuated with an onyx gold necklace with matching earrings as well as scarlet eyeliner and black mascara to accentuate her startling green eyes and very faint charcoal eye shadow. For shoes she wore simple shiny red pumps and her hair was in an Asian messy bun held together with one large red ornate clip.

'Wow, you look amazing!' Dan complimented his date and the three couples made their way into the Great Hall to dance the night away.


	4. Ficlette 3: Angst

FICLETTE THREE: ANGST

(Includes a little jig)

The figure raised his violin and carefully held it in place. He slowly slid the bow across the instrument, producing an eerie sloping melody. He gradually worked his way through the slow, high pitched notes of the adagio of Vivaldi's Four Seasons' Summer second movement, the sad melody echoing through the tower and eventually subsiding into silence.

After a well-timed pause he launched into the presto that was the Summer storm and the quick, accurate notes expertly went through crescendos and decrescendos and he played on.

* * *

The storm from the night before had passed, and the skies were clear. The weak sunlight did little to warm the wet, chilled earth however and the Ravenclaw common room had a background hum of voices as the Ravenclaws enjoyed a quiet Sunday morning indoors.

'So how do you do this question, then?' he said in a resigned voice, pointing to a question in his Arithmancy book while pushing it over.

Aliorumnas looked at it for a few seconds before replying, 'they try to trick you by writing it like that, and really it's asking for the same thing as the previous question.'

'It's seriously that simple?' Felix pulled the book back over and groaned. 'My brain just isn't working today.'

'Tell me about it,' Lyra yawned, sitting down next to Aliorumnas on the midnight blue star-speckled common room carpet. She proceeded to drop her books and lay on them, as if to sleep.

'So did you get a lot done last night, Lucky?' Emily inquired dutifully, sitting on Lyra's other side.

'If that means fighting against gale-force winds for an hour before calling it quits then yeah, I guess we did,' Felix replied, yawning.

'Only an hour? So surely you slept it off.'

'We didn't get to bed 'til later...' he trailed off. Emily shot him a meaningful glance and he quickly interjected, 'not what you think! It took forever to change, and it was Lyra and I's turn to put away the equipment, so the others went back before us. On the way back we were going past the Astronomy tower when we heard some weird music.'

'Music in Hogwarts? You sure you weren't going delusional from exhaustion?'

'Yes,' he sighed, 'it was music. Violin to be precise.'

'Did you see who was playing?'

'No.'

'Then—'

'We saw a silhouette, but couldn't tell who,' he cut in. 'Anyway, the person was really good, whoever it was,' he yawned. 'I'd guess a teacher, since if any student here could play like that they'd go to some conservatorium.'

Emily grew thoughtful as Felix drifted off. 'Let's go tonight,' she said loudly.

'Mmkay,' he shook himself awake just to go fall asleep on a couch.

* * *

The sun set early that afternoon, and the day hadn't gotten much warmer before cooling down again.

Felix rubbed his eyes, 'What time is it?' he asked groggily.

'Five thirty two, now get up! We have to go hide at the foot of the astronomy tower and catch the mysterious violinist going up!'

He yawned, 'but dinner!' he protested.

'Not my fault you slept through it ... now let's go.'

He complied and they went to the foot of the astronomy tower.

'So where's Lyra?' Felix asked Emily, **doing a little jig** to keep warm in the drafty tower. 'And is Alio helping us?'

'Lyra's loud, she'd probably just get us caught by sneezing or something.' She rubbed her arms furiously. 'And you'll see the reason for Alio in just a second.' She turned to Aliorumnas, 'When you're ready.'

Without a second's thought Alio muttered the appropriate spell and tapped them each on the head, one at a time. An extremely cold feeling ran down their bodies from where they were tapped, but it soon subsided and they were invisible.

'It's only temporary, but it should last a good few hours,' Alio instructed. 'Should it fade you'll still be partially hidden by the shadows, just don't fidget or make noise.'

'Who else could do a seventh-year spell? Thanks again, Alio, you're a life saver,' Emily and Felix ducked down in the shadows by the stairs up the tower.

'Not really, no.' Alio stated matter-of-factly. She abruptly turned around and wandered off to the Great Hall. Felix and Emily sat crouched in the darkness of the stairwell feeling oddly lonely, since they couldn't see each other.

'So who do you think it could be?' Emily whispered. 'Lovett? He hums in class and has that flourishing kind of walk.'

'But could you see him actually playing a violin?'

'True.' Emily suppressed a yawn and they fell into silence again as the last of the red light faded and the world fell into darkness.

After what felt like an eternity they heard footsteps in the distance, coming not from the direction of the house towers but the rest of the castle.

_Not a Gryffindor or a Ravenclaw then,_ Emily mused.

The silhouette came into view, a slightly taller-than-them short-haired figure holding a violin-shaped case.

Emily strained her eyes but though faint moonlight lit up his face with every window he passed, it was too dark and far away to see any distinguishing features. He stepped into the light of the window nearest them.

The light revealed the face of their Slytherin classmate from Defence Against the Dark Arts, Blake.

Blake Merazson.

'Merazson!? _You're_ the resident Astronomy tower-haunting violinist?' Felix jumped up from where he was hidden. Blake almost dropped his violin case in surprise.

'What the—'

Emily rolled her eyes, _Jeez, so much for being quieter than Lyra_, she thought, joining him. Blake's eyes opened further at the sight of Emily.

'You're with him, Shaw? I never dreamed I'd see the day a pureblood was found crouching behind a dirty stairwell to spy on people!'

'You're one to talk, sneaking around the school at night. I never realised you had a hidden talent.' She smirked.

He faltered and grew silent.

'Well I can tell _something_'s wrong,' she said, cutting to the chase. 'I'm your childhood friend, you know I won't blab. Unless I don't know what there is that makes it such an important thing to keep secret, of course.'

He sighed and gave in. 'Well, since you so badly want to know, I'll tell you. You've probably heard the rumours surrounding the ... legitimacy of my birth.' He turned his reflective gaze to the moon outside.

'My parents married and had me soon after ... some people said too soon. Well, it turns out my birth father was really my mother's previous lover, a musician who died and left her his instrument. Father was, however, desperately in love with her and already too old to reasonably expect a legitimate heir, so he wasn't about to abandon me. He respected her wishes of having me learn violin and of my true birth, but as you can understand he couldn't do so officially.

'Unfortunately for him, I've really taken to violin. He let me attend a Muggle music school overseas on a scholarship when I was younger, but now I have to put all that behind me and pretend like violin never happened.' He looked back at his two listeners. 'Well now you know. I suppose you understand, Shaw, why I don't want this getting out...'

'That you're not a pureblood?'

'Yes, I'm really a half blood. Otherwise my father would have acknowledged my true origins. The less people know the better, I can't have them drawing unnecessary connections and digging up the past.'

'...Well I definitely don't envy your position.' She stated finally, 'well, we'd best be off before a teacher finds us.' She ushered Felix along ahead of her as they made their way back to their tower, but not before a whispered 'good luck' in Blake's direction.

* * *

'So what happened with that violin ghost?' Lyra asked between gulps of scrambled eggs early next morning.

'Ghosts can't hold things, stupid,' Emily stated.

'Fine, don't tell me,' she pouted taking a massive bite out of a slice of toast.

Emily merely rolled her eyes, and halfway down the table Felix let out a huge yawn.


End file.
